


Rite of Passage

by mOther3



Series: On Living With Magypsies [2]
Category: Mother 3
Genre: Gen, Just a lil blood, Wrote this for a starmen.net prompt but hey, and familial tension? Idk how to tag this, kuma wants to be a big girl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2016-08-06
Packaged: 2018-07-29 15:34:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7690084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mOther3/pseuds/mOther3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kumatora leaves home to check on Oshoe castle, suspecting suspicious activity, and ends up dealing with more than she can handle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rite of Passage

**Author's Note:**

> For a Starmen.net prompt of the month: Trap!

There was a fire, and a huge storm followed. Nestled up in the shell house with Aeolia, one of her seven guardians, Kumatora watched unfamiliar shapes drift through the hazy rain streaked skies, over a cup of herbal tea. Her castle, and more importantly, the hummingbird egg were out there in all this, unprotected. Aeolia had refused with a hand on their hip and an adamant 'no' to their daughter's requests to see that the castle and its treasure were safe. Kumatora was but thirteen--still considered a baby by Magypsy standards. 

Aeolia had their reasons. Mysterious people, clad in armor, had been showing up all throughout the islands. Every one of the Magypsies noticed it. These newcomers were all in search of two things, the most precious things of all to the Nowhere natives: the needles, and the memories of the Tazmily residents. Kumatora would get the intruders' attention if she went out, drawing them straight to the egg.

Tonight, however, Aeolia's 'no' was not the answer the princess wanted to hear. 

She packed a small bag with provisions and set off into the stormy night once her guardian was asleep.

\---

The castle remained as it usually was, worn down, quiet and musty. Small creatures like mice and every now and then, a frog, would dart out of the way of the young princess' determined path. 

Some of the dust on the stone floor was disturbed. Fresh footsteps and flecks of mud. Combat boots? There were so many tracks. They lead everywhere too, they were looking for something. None of the inhabitants of the islands knew of the hummingbird egg, save for the Magypsies and one human they trusted with it, Wess. These were not his tracks. So what were these steps from, and were they here for the memories? 

Kumatora began upwards to check on the egg, met by more tracks, mud, and disturbances in the halls: broken suits of armor, trash littering the area, and scraped stones on the floor. Something moved in the stairwell ahead. The thief, or at least, whoever had broken into her castle. She ran at it, hands flickering with feeble psionic powers in an attempt to attack whatever intruder was in the hall before her. 

Ka-SHUNK!

Sudden pain shot up Kumatora's leg, bringing warm tears to her eyes. The growing energy in her hands, to be used as an attack, shot off in two small fiery bursts from her palms. She was across the floor in an instant, body tingling and shaking with the sudden disturbance. Something was around her foot, Kumatora sat up and looked at it hesitantly. Some sort of trap. For an animal.. It was closed around her ankle, pressing her pink boot against her skin. From the metal teeth sunk into her leg, small streams of deep red blood began to well, slowly trickling onto the floor. Her first reaction was panic, she would be able to pry the trap from her leg, surely.

Kumatora pulled at it desperately, fighting back tears from the pain. Nothing gave. The disruption only made the wounds bleed more, which frightened her enough to stop that tactic. 

Her parents could help. She would call out to them. They'd hear, right?

"Aeolia! Help!"

Silence. Drops of rain leaking in from the ceiling. 

"Please?!"

Silence, broken by now fearful cries from the girl. She pulled off her sweater, wrapping it around the trap and wound, and sat pitifully, shivering. 

What now? 

Healing. Her parents knew how to heal and take the hurt away from any wounds she suffered. Doria once mended her badly broken arm to near perfection (aside from some soreness). Kumatora had not been taught such techniques yet, but had seen them exercised enough to try. She brought trembling hands to the area where the trap had sunk through her boot and removed her sweater. It was swelling, red. She concentrated and small green sparks flickered from her fingertips. The beginnings of PSI lifeup. Hardly effective enough to do anything, but it was there. She tried a few more times, exhausting a good bit of her psychic energy before stopping. It wouldn't work. She didn't know how to make it, and trying the same thing over and over wasn't effective. 

Nearly out of options, Kumatora fumbled around to find something that might possibly improve the situation. After the initial panic of not finding anything subsided, she remembered the bag slung across her back.

She rifled through it: a half used tube of Aeolia's lipstick, a few pieces of candy hastily snatched from the table during parties, a hermit crab shell (Ocho's favorite), a few days old piece of bread, and a small pocket knife a human traded her last time she was in town. She nibbled on one of the candies, fumbling at the pocket knife with shaky fingers. Maybe, if she absolutely had to.. She could cut off her foot. 

The knife was dull. It didn't draw blood when she ran it across her finger. Hopefully it would do the trick when the time came.

For now, she decided to rest, and wait in case Aeolia or someone friendly came along. It had been a few minutes since she called, anyways.

Hours. The sun began to peak through the windows. Hope dwindled as it climbed higher. Kumatora rolled the pocket knife back and forth in her hand, and brought the cold metal of it up against her leg near where the trap had caught her. 

"Princess?! Princess!"

A familiar voice--Wess.

Kumatora stared down the hall where the voice was coming from. Wess was running toward her, his son Duster, making good speed behind him, lolling from side to side as he limped. 

She wanted to cry in relief, but something stopped her. They couldn't know she was scared, they'd tell the Magypsies what had happened, and that she was crying. They'd never let her out of their sight.

Wess was at the trap in an instant, trying to disarm it gently, "What happened?" 

Along with the Magypsies, Wess was more or less, another of Kumatora's adoptive parents. He cared for her when the Magypsies were at important parties where Kumatora wasn't allowed, but that was a very rare occasion. Of course, finding her like this was very worrying. She'd obviously ran away, none of the Magypsies would let her out at a time like this. 

Kumatora spoke up in a falsely confident voice, "I got caught in this trap. I was going to cut my foot off if I couldn't get out but you came." 

Wess pulled the trap's teeth from her leg, spilling more blood from where it had started to heal. Kumatora grimaced and looked the other way. Duster was standing idly nearby, watching his father free her. She hadn't gotten a good look at him until now: he was timid, a little hunched over, pale, and freckled. When he caught her staring, he jumped a little, startled. After this, his nervous brown eyes darted back to her bloodied ankle, now free of the trap. 

"Does it hurt?" He almost whispered. 

Kumatora looked back at Wess, who was bandaging her leg up with a torn scrap of his shirt. She would be strong. To make the Magypsies proud. An independent princess. 

She flashed Duster a small smile, followed with,

"No."


End file.
